AUTONOMY TONIGHT / UTOPIA TOMORROW: DSG IS OVER

DSG believe in building appropriate tools for struggle. We formed DSG at the end of 2010 out of a need; the need for a place to discuss issues of class-struggle that are broader or more imaginative than were already on offer, and a need to produce propaganda which travels with that struggle in a form more alive to our everyday realities. We wanted to reflect and further the class-struggle and the struggle against austerity as we see it in our lives, not try and shape our lives to fit dogma. But social conditions have developed – in 12 months we have seen a series of ruptures and attacks upon that neoliberal consensus, from the Arab Spring through to a series of riots of unparalleled ferocity. In that time, we feel like our capabilities and potential have developed too; they have been restructured by action and by results.

As a result, things have changed for us – we no longer feel the blogging format is such a proficient tool for the spreading of propaganda. The greatest flaw to us is to be reactive, only responding to situations as the actions of others make them arise, rather than seeking to overturn existing conditions on our own terms. The last thing we would want to happen is to reach a point of ossification and stasis; of becoming yet another platform pouring out link-baiting dross or dull, rote journalism, such as Liberal Conspiracy or Socialist Worker. We are tired of such institutions and of the ideology spread by them, intrinsic to this publishing form: that the working class are hardworking victims of capital, exploited by virtue of their own stupidity, desperate to give an honest days work and just wanting an honest days pay… No, the proletarian is a master of struggle; she is aspirational, she wants to evade wage-labour and regain the flesh of life. It is our class who produce and create and drive social change; it is our struggles that capital reacts to, it is our struggle that shapes society. This is the movement we wish to be a part of, and we don’t feel we can do it by remaining comfortable and reactive.

Class struggle is a dynamic force, and the propaganda that travels with it must remain as dynamic and powerful as the class. As part of the European proletariat we recognise the enormous field of battle that has opened up before us; we will not be limited by traditions of struggle; we must open up a new front in every area of our everyday lives. The modern communist is a digital native and we embrace these territories as future playgrounds. So we have re-evaluated our position and taken heed of opportunities as they have arisen. This blog is over. We have realised there are better things we can be doing; we shall go and do them.

So what are you going to do then? Promote the class struggle through silence? Through interpretive dance? Through finally getting that job in accountancy? Worst excuse for packing something in I’ve ever heard.

I wish you’d asked us. Srilatha Batliwala has something good to say about this:

“Take another example of my relationship with the older women in the women’s collectives at that time. Some of these had been operating very successfully on a number of fronts, taking up different struggles and I began to talk about handing over certain responsibilities to them, and moving out of certain roles. They got quite upset. I was, of course, faithfully following my own prescription, spelt out above, about letting the constituency lead itself, not speaking on their behalf, and what not.

This is what they said to me. They said: “Look here, why are you doing this? In the beginning, you need to walk in front. After a while, we will tell you, and then you move to the side and you walk beside us, and finally, when we are really ready, we will tell you and then you can walk behind us. But right now we are not ready for you to walk behind us. Instead of you deciding – it is we who have to decide this. Listen and ask us – we’ll tell you when.” That was an important and valuable lesson I learnt, as a result of the pressure that came from women who were actually empowered enough to recognise that as leaders we were there for them, not the other way around.”